Operating Aspects of
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PASSENGER TRANSPORT
Buses Earn Big Profits DINES are making increasingly large 1-/profits for municipalities. In the majority of the analyses of corporation bus accounts for the past year, published below, it will be found that buses were responsible for returning useful surpluses.
ROAD AS STATION
TO what extent should the use of a highway be permitted as a bus station? A situation arises in Manchester which must be typical of many throughout the country, but here the position is acute, because the street has become a crowded business thoroughfare, the bus proprietor (to use the term of the Commissioners) a rich operator with clients clamouring for additional facilities, and the rival undertaking a corporation with an elaborate bus station costing thousands of pounds.
A.. Mayne and Son, Ltd., Beswick, Manchester, has as one of its biggest assets a service fsom the Droylsden areainto the centreof the city, with Dale Street as a terminus.
Mr. Arthur Mayne, objecting to the timing of corporation buses, was questioned by Mr. W. Chamberlain, chairman of the North-Western Traffic Commissioners, at a Manchester sitting,
last Friday. He admikted that the receipts per w ehicle -mile of the old days had been almost doubled and that the additional revenue was additional profit.
Mr. Chamberlain then warned him that he was now a rich operator and that whatever sympathy might in the past have been extended to him as a small man could not be continued for
all time. There were serious complaints, about which the police were concerned, of his use of Dale Street as a bus station, and something would have to he done about it.
TFtOLLEYBUS CHANGE PLAN.
CHESTERFIELD Corporation has confirmed the proposal, reported in last week's issue, to replace trolleybuses by motorbuses on the route from Brampton to New Whittington, as from April 1 next, It is stated that in six years trolleybuses would produce a profit of £6,381, and oilers £10,536.
'TRAM-SCRAPPING SPEED-UP?
BIRMINGHA3,1 Corporation may be forced to speed up its tramis.placement programme. West Bromwich, Dudley, Smethwick, Oldbury and Rowley Regis Corporations, on behalf of which Birmingham operates trams, propose to exercise their options of purchasing their tramways at the end of next year. West Bromwich is determined to replace the trams by buses.
PROTECTING PUBLIC AGAINST ITSELF.
SOMETIMES we have to protect members of the public against themselves, for, in this case, they might easily pay is. for a trip which would normally cost them 8d. or 9d." With this comment, Mr. J. H. Stirk, chairman of the East Midland Traffic Commissioners, reserved decision, on Tues'day, on an application by Derby Corporation for permission to issue is. day tickets on August Bank Holiday.
The reason for the application was stated to. be to test the demand for such facilities at holiday times. "WELSH SUNDAY" BAN ON EXCURSIONS?
rE question of the "Welsh Sunday " occurred at Carmarthen, when the South Wales Traffic Corruxiissioners heard an application by Messrs. Davies -Brothers, Pencader, for sanction to run Sunday excursions, during the summer, from Pencader to New Quay (Cazds.)..
Mr. A. T.. James, K.C., chairman,
pointed out that he would have to consider possible objections by Pencader residents. He was sure that opposition would be forthcoming. The applicants would have --to bring responsible witnesses to testify to the demand for such trips.
The application was adjourned.
LET SLEEPING DOGS LIE.
ABUS company that is asleep cannot expect the Traffic Commissioners to wake it up. This is the effect of a dictum by Mr. H. -Riches, chairman of the Northern Scotland Traffic Commissioners. He voiced it when a bus concern opposed extensions by another on the ground that the applicant was gradually encroaching on the other's pitch.
MANCHESTER FOR BUSES.
AANCHESTER City Council has kV.Iapproved reports of the transport and finance committees urging the gradual replacement of the trams by motorbus-es or trolleybuses.
PRICE OF SPEED
ritmeet claims made on behalf of s drivers by the Transport and General Workers Union to Salford Corporation, the speed on the Manchester-Leigh route of the municipal bus system, together with the co-ordinated services of Leigh Corporation and the Lancashire United Transport and Power Co., Ltd., has been reduced from 18.47 m.p.h. to 15.88 m.p.h.
Mr. J. W. Blakemore, general manager of the Salford transport undertaking, told the North-Western Traffic Commissioners at a sitting in Manchester, last week, that he and the co-ordinating 'companies agreed with the union that the present timing imposed unreasonable stress upon drivers, but that to alter it on the present. frequency would involve a standing time of 20 minutes. By putting on one extra bus per hour, a 20-minute, instead of a 30--minute, frequency could be given, and it was justified by the increased traffic on the route.
Mr. E. Edwardes, of the "Lanes United," estimated the loss at 21,200 per annum if the speed were reduced without the extra frequency.
The Commissioners sanctioned the changes proposed.
NEW UNION FOR SCOTTISH WORKERS.
fAISSATISFIED with the Transport LI and General Workers Union, a number of West of Scotland bus employees is stated to be attempting to form a new organization.
The men claim that the recent settlements made between the union and the Scottish Motor Traction Co., Ltd., and the local authorities have not given the workers the high standard of wages and conditions Which they demanded. A separate union has been formed in Glasgow. Officials have been appointed